Before you read my review, let me tell you that I am associated with Motorola, (I work in a different domain than cell phones, however) and my review may be biased (though I intend to be as neutral as possible). Kindly judge the review and the product on your instincts and consult other users too.
Well well well. I swear to God, I never thought I will ever buy a MOTO phone. It was quite an accident that I discovered this 'cheap' stuff can be really really 'cool'. I had this bad habit of charging my Nokia E-65 overnight, and ended up spoiling its battery. I inquired about the battery price with a Nokia priority dealer, and was told a whopping 1800 INR. By chance, by sheer luck, I went to a local store (where I used to get my prepaid recharge done).
The shop-owner there asked me, "Kya sir, aap MOTOROLA ke employee hoke bhi, NOKIA use karte hai?". I did feel ashamed, not of using NOKIA but the kind of brand image my company carried (considering, MOTO invented the cell-phone :-( ). I told him, I own an expensive phone and can't afford another expensive gadget right now. I asked him if he had the Nokia's battery, he mocked at me, and said " Sir, buy a MOTO Yuva, you will thank me later". So humiliated I was, I thought, what the heck, lets buy this 1750 rs phone and just get the hell out of here, never to return again (did you call me coward..huh..!!).
WOW..!!! It was what you call luck by chance. My vodafone's performance in my bedroom was similar to the tata-indicom's advt: "hello-hello-HELLO-HELLO"; i.e no signal. I had little choice but to keep two phones (I have a tata and one vodafone connection). But with this little phone, I can very well sit anywhere in my house, and wonder if Vodafone has installed an in-house equipment ;-). The reception is much better than the Nokia I have been using. The icing on the cake is the voice clarity, which is better (If not far better).
I admit, there is no camera;no notes page;no wi-fi, not even GPRS; (no bluetooth, the list can go on...). but this review is not about what it lacks (in comparison to a phone which I bought for 20K). Its about, what it's got. So read on.
As I mentioned, Its call reception is better and "crystal-talk-technology" gives you better call quality. Feature set is pretty basic, but I love the two features I extensively use. A. Alarm clock B. Calender.
Alarm has repeat options, and hence I can set an alarm and don't worry every night who will wake me up for office the next day(With E-65, I had to place an alarm every night, and man I did miss so many meetings...grrrr ). Also, I can place 5 alarms simultaneously, in contrast to just one with my nokia. this is very useful (for me). How? Well, I have an alarm which will wake me up every morning( week specific), one alarm to fill my time sheet ( day specific) , one alarm for the out-of-the blue meeting that was scheduled last night and blah blah blah... :-)
Calender, Not as useful as the Nokia's feature rich calender, but does the basic bare bones work, like keeping alarms for my mom's birthday (repeatable every year), alarm as a reminder for my credit card bill due date (repeatable every month, on a particular 'date', say 1st as in my case), alarms repeatable every month on a particular 'day' (say my salary day, last Friday of every month, HAPPY DAY..!!!).
The build quality is good and has a strong body (both look and feel). I have a habit of sleeping with (on :p ) the phone. considering am almost 70kgs, am sure it has been designed for rough use. I am pretty careless too, and the phone keeps hitting the floor frequently and yet, the body texture is such that there are no scratches (yet !!!). The phone is built with ease of handling in mind. It gently slips in your pocket and does not take too much space. 600+ message storage ensures you have ample amount of space and you don't have to delete the messages you love . My Phone book is already 200+ and the phone has not complained yet. Battery charger has USB interface, and hence can be used interchangeably with other chargers/phones.
It has some other features too, like Radio, but the sound quality is not great (My Nokia had no radio
and a mono earphone, and was no good either, but the speakers were very good). The phone's performance is kind of slow (but still manageable). User interface was a nightmare but I got used to it in few weeks (and now I find nokia to be a nightmare, ). At times charging shows full, though it will die in 15 minutes (Battery backup is decent, you just need to restart the phone when this crazy thing happens, it's a software bug). And the worst thing, the worst of everything is the irritating sound it makes once it goes low on power (man, can you believe that? it does that even when its in silent mode; am just sick of that sound).But that sick sound will make sure, you plug your phone to a power station immediately (you have little choice, you see) and not be w/o power when you go out, say.
Over all, its a nice phone to have for 1750 bucks(when I bought it a year ago). No wonder, My Nokia E-65 is still w/o a battery. Its the only MOTO phone I will recommend (MOTO ZINE is good too, but its a feature rich phone and can't be compared to this bare-bones version) to my friends and family (and MS -ki-janta ;-)).
If all you want to do is make calls, have a good call quality and some decent alarm/calender features (and may be listen to radio), buy this phone. It is a rugged and solidly build phone and will last long . It is a true value for money deal. Choice, of course is yours. :-)
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